Everything about the CSCOPE Lessons has been hidden and guarded from the public -tax payers who are funding the ESC (Education Service Centers) (NGO). Non-government organization that gain access to the public’s tax dollars.

Now the public has been led to believe that the CSCOPE lesson are gone–deleted– NOT SO!

It appears that there has been another slight of hand and the CSCOPE lessons are being deleted from one file and being added to another–on the same website. Was Senator Patrick deceived?

Yes, the CSCOPE lessons will be deleted from the part of the CSCOPE user website managed by the Texas Education Service Centers (ESCs). In the diagram, this is the “CSCOPE Curriculum” tab. But school districts have until Aug. 31, 2013 to transfer the CSCOPE Lessons to the District Content tab.

Let me explain. School Districts pay a fee each year to the ESCs to have access to the CSCOPE Curriculum materials posted on what is called the CSCOPE User Website. The CSCOPE Curriculum material is the same for every registered (pays a fee) school district. But, each school has a code so that they have their own user website that has a section called the District Content. This material can be accessed by educators and staff, but not by other school districts. School districts store their own schedules, information about lessons, etc..in the District Content section of their CSCOPE User Website. The My Stuff is where teachers store their own personal lessons and notes, etc…. This material belongs to the school district. But, since this material may be a revised version of the copyrighted CSCOPE Instruction Material, school districts only have access to this material as long as they continue to pay the yearly fee. A school district gives up its rights to this material if it chooses not to pay the yearly fee.

My hypothesis is that the ESC CSCOPE Consortium agreed to delete the CSCOPE lessons from their CSCOPE Curriculum files. But, they didn’t agree to delete what school districts have in their DistrictContent files. I am not sure the ESCs have the right to do this. Thus, while the CSCOPE lessons will be deleted from the part of the CSCOPE User Website owned by the ESCs, any CSCOPE lessons saved in District Content files will continue to be available and used by school districts.

2. On May 17, 2013, the ESC governing group presented a“Let’s Make a Deal” letter to Senator Patrick. The accepted deal requires the ESCs to delete all the CSCOPE lesson from the CSCOPE User Website (CSCOPE Content Section) as well as other files belonging to the ESCs by Aug. 31, 2013.

After Senator Patrick’s announcement that the ERA of the CSCOPE Lessons is over, some schools got serious about saving the CSCOPE lessons to their District Content Section of the CSCOPE User Website.

Teachers have reported school administrators requesting that they save the CSCOPE lessons so they can be used during the 2013-2014 school year. One administrator informed the teaching staff that the CSCOPE lessons would be saved for them. Doesn’t sound like the ERA of the CSCOPE lessons is over after all.

This is the announcement notifying teachers to save the CSCOPE Lessons. There were specific step-by-step instructions posted on the CSCOPE website.

Is your school district whining about the CSCOPE lessons being taken away when they have secretly stored them for use in the fall?

Some school administrators are so distraught over the loss of the CSCOPE lessons that they have filed hardship reports with TEA asking to be exempt from state testing next year, 2012-2103.

Why is it some districts are saving the lessons and other are crying over the loss of the CSCOPE lessons? Even school districts claiming never to have used the lessons are finding the removal of the CSCOPE lessons devastating. What ever did these administrators do prior to CSCOPE?

Even with CSCOPE lessons some administrators are finding ways to cheat on the STAAR tests, but that is another story. Even so, adds to the need for parents to focus on the administration who is in charge of the quality of education in our schools.

Without the CSCOPE lessons the ESC CSCOPE Consortium is collecting fees for their CSCOPE Managing System Guidelines. In Marlin, 25 of the 30 high school teachers fled the district. They had had enough of the CSCOPE micromanaging system.

Since part of the deal that Senator Patrick made with the ESC CSCOPE Consortium was to support delaying any outside review if the 20 ESCs. The bill passed and Governor Perry signed it. The Texas Education System got the short end of the stick! CSCOPE lessons will be in the schools next year and the ESCs are still governing themselves. TEA is still pouring millions of dollars of grant money into the CSCOPE coffers. Are your schools benefiting from this?

Bill along with Ex-Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Moses founded the “Raise Your Hand” non-profit back in 2007 which raised eyebrows because they had a history in Education that many will not forget. Below are excerpts from Donna Garner’s 2007 article “Raise Your Hand for a Hand Out”

Ratliff and Moses are continuing to swill from the education trough by forming a new organization called Raise Your Hand to pressure the people for more tax dollars for Texas’ public schools. Have these two gentlemen any credibility on the subject?

William Murchison said it best in the 2.16.07 Lone Star Report, “…keep a country mile away from Raise Your Hand, and from Bill Ratliff, and from Mike Moses, whose solution for dealing with a sinking boat is to pour some more water in the gunwales.”

Before we citizens put our trust in Raise Your Hand, let’s do a quick study of its leaders, Ratliff and Moses.

RATLIFF: ROBIN HOOD, LOSS OF LOCAL CONTROL BY TEACHERS

Not only did Ratliff author the failed and oft-maligned Robin Hood Plan, but he also drafted SB 1 in 1995 which stripped local teachers of control over what they taught.

RATLIFF: LOSS OF CONTROL BY LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS

As the author of SB 1, Ratliff is also responsible for taking the authority away from elected local school boards and placing that power into the hands of unelected superintendents.

No longer do locally elected school board members have any real control over the all-important issues of personnel hiring and district curriculum decisions.

Local school board members’ duties have basically been reduced to (1) hiring and firing the superintendent, (2) buying and selling property, and (3) setting board policy (e.g., those items which involve board members themselves – elections, vacancies on the board, travel and reimbursement policies, etc.).

RATLIFF: LOSS OF CONTROL BY ELECTED SBOE

At the state level, Ratliff tried for years to replace the elected State Board of Education (SBOE) with an appointed one. Appointed boards really do not care what voters want. They will do the will of whoever appoints them and of the lobbyists who orchestrate from a distance.

Ratliff’s SB 1 reduced the authority of the elected SBOE and enhanced the power of the unelected Texas Commissioner of Education who at the time was Ratliff’s joined-at-the-hip ally, Mike Moses.

Ratliff always pretended that the SBOE had lost control over textbook content; and until Attorney General Greg Abbott’s 2006 opinion, the SBOE was shut out of fulfilling its lawful responsibilities. For eleven years the Board labored under Ratliff’s false interpretation; and during that time, numerous inferior textbooks were placed in front of our Texas students.

Because of Ratliff’s influence on SB 1, elected SBOE members cannot even elect their own chairperson; the Governor appoints one.

RATLIFF: TAXPAYER-ENRICHED OPPORTUNIST

Ratliff is a registered lobbyist (http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/dfs/loblists.htm) and has made large sums of money from a number of clients including the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). Having retired from the Texas Senate in 2003, he began representing TASB on May 10, 2004. That year he received up to $99,999.99 from TASB, and again in 2005, and 2006.

“Unfortunately, the Ratliff family (Bill, Thomas, Bennett, Shannon) are heavily vested in Raise Your Hand and in other political entities that have managed to influence our Texas Legislators, particularly during this 83rd Session.”

You know the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is the lead funder for the transformation of Education in America called Common Core. It has been reported that “a Gates Foundation-funded project is storing an unprecedented amount of personal information about millions of students in a $100 million database that cannot guarantee complete security.”

CSCOPE uses public funds to run a private non-profit corporation to hide its operations from the public

CSCOPE started as a simple service to local school districts and spread to over 800 districts statewide with plans of expanding out of state.

The legality of CSCOPE’s actions are highly suspect, access local tax dollars to give to a private non-profit corporation instead of distributing the funds directly to the ISDs as dictated by Texas Education Code 18.14.

So now the light is being shined and the Ratliff Clan is not happy. After listening to the recommendation of SBOE Thomas Ratliff for districts to download CSCOPE lessons and then listening to Sen. Dan Patrick’s response linked here. I would suggest we all call Attorney General Greg Abbott and let him know it is time for the Ratcliff clan to be held responsible. Let’s start with removing Thomas Ratliff from the SBOE.

See Thomas Ratliff’s press release and article written in the Long View News Journal- “WHAT A BULLY” I encourage you to click on the article and then voice your opinion of Thomas Ratliff’s opinion piece which basically defends the authors of the CSCOPE lessons which have been proven to be Anti-American, Anti-Christian and caused a great many of students to fail the STAAR test. It was not the teachers it was the philosophy of education of people like Linda Darling Hammond which gives the illusion of helping Texas School Children and Sarah Brown Wessling who parents have an issue with.

“If we want change to come we could do well not to look to the seats of power we have no access to. The white house even the congress the pentagon these are not the sites that we have access to. But lo and behold we have complete access to the community the school the neighborhood the street the classroom the workplace, the shop, the farm. That’s what we have direct access to…..”

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